Ted Cruz is the latest politician who abruptly left a restaurant after being heckled. The Republican senator from Texas was grabbing a bite at Fiola in Washington, D.C,. on the night of Monday, September 24, when protestors walked in and began chanting “We believe survivors” as Cruz and his wife, Heidi, were seated at a table.
The protesters were criticizing 47-year-old Cruz’s friendship with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez. Footage of the incident shared by an activist group on Twitter shows Cruz, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign against Democrat Beto O’Rourke, and his wife, 46, attempting to leave the restaurant as protestors gathered around him.
At one point, a protestor told Cruz that O’Rourke is “way hotter” than he is, while another asked the politician if he will “confirm [his] best friend Brett Kavanaugh.”
Cruz remained relatively calm throughout the ordeal, and can be heard telling the crowd “God bless you” as he gathered his belongings and exited the eatery through a side door. Once Cruz was outside, the protesters can be heard clapping and cheering.
However, once O’Rourke, 45, got wind of how his opponent was treated, he took to Twitter to show support for the Cruz family. “Not right that Senator Cruz and his wife Heidi were surrounded and forced to leave a restaurant last night because of protesters,” he wrote on Tuesday, September 25. “The Cruz family should be treated with respect.”
In addition to Cruz, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen left a D.C. restaurant in June 2018 as protestors shouted “shame.” Also that month, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked by the owner of a Virginia restaurant to leave because of her role in the Trump administration. “Her actions say far more about her than about me,” Sanders, 36, said at the time. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
